Niche brands are beginning to eat up the market share of many leading consumer goods firms. With the right operating models, the big fish can learn to swim with these small but powerful competitors.

RetailME brings snapshots of AT Kearney’s report titled ‘Swimming with the Piranhas and Reinventing the Mass Consumer Model’ which compares the smaller brands to ‘piranhas’ and how they eat into the market shares of big brands

The rise of distinctive brands

Tito’s in vodka, Michel et Augustin in food, Chobani in yoghurt, Innocent in smoothies, See Young in hair care, Catrice in cosmetics. One could point to dozens of small brands that have won over consumers and stolen market share from leading mass consumer goods companies such as Pernod Ricard, Danone, Nestlé, Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, L’Oréal and Unilever.

AT Kearney studied the trend of smaller companies that are proliferating in large categories by taking small bites out of the market share of leading consumer goods firms. According to AT Kearney’s research, piranhas enjoyed yearly revenue growth of up to 20%, while large enterprises in the same categories recorded negative sales growth or, at most, 2-3% growth in 2016.